


Willful Ignorance

by tsukihigui



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Characters and relationships will be added as they appear, Everyone will show up eventually - Freeform, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I chose not to use archive warnings because I don't know where this is going, Phantom Planet? What Phantom Planet?, Rating May Change, title may change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-24 21:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12021105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukihigui/pseuds/tsukihigui
Summary: "You’ve got to take better care of yourself. Ever since you got these powers you’ve neglected every aspect of your well-being in favor of fighting ghosts, and while I appreciate your heroic spirit,” Danny chuckled at the half-pun. Jazz rolled her eyes. “Unintentional, Danny.”“More like punintentional,” Danny giggled. Great; he was slipping.





	1. Spill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: This chapter is as of yet not beta-read, so I'd like to formally apologize for any retinal and/or cerebral damage you might sustain from reading this. I can't pay for a lawyer so please don't sue me.

“What did you do?!”  
  
Danny inhaled sharply as he looked up. “Geez, Jazz, don’t just barge in like that. You scared me!”  
  
“Danny. What did you do?” Jazz repeated. Danny looked down at his stomach, which he hastily covered with an arm.  
  
“Nothing, Jazz. It’s a little cut. Sam’s first aid kit ran out of thread so I’ll just stitch this baby up and I’ll be on my way.” Danny reached behind him to grab his mom’s emergency kit - well-prepared, as Maddie Fenton tended to be. As he moved his arm, though, he exposed his abdomen, and Jazz yelped.  
  
“Oh my god, Danny. You can’t just… brush something like that off!” Danny wasn’t listening, though. He had turned his attention to the needle in his hand, which was stubbornly refusing to accept a waxy thread. He sighed as he caught his sister’s incredulous gaze.  
  
“Seriously, Jazz. Don’t sweat it.” Danny fumbled behind him, retrieving a small rectangular object. “See? I’ll even sterilize the needle and everything.” He ignited the lighter and briefly heated the needle. Throwing the lighter into the first aid kit, he squinted as he clumsily tried, once again, to coax the thread through the eye of the needle. Jazz knelt down and snatched the needle and thread, ignoring the growing puddle of green ooze on the otherwise-pristine white tile. “Hey!” Danny exclaimed, “I had that under control!”  
  
“I couldn’t give two shits about what you have under control. My baby brother is bleeding out on our bathroom floor and he won’t even tell me what happened!” Jazz deftly threaded the needle and started examining Danny’s wound. A large gash from his left side ended right above his belly button, and Jazz saw that it reached all the way around to his mid-back. The edges of the wounded skin looked like they had been violently torn apart, but even as Jazz watched she could see wispy tendrils of white mist starting to knit together over the opening. Jazz breathed out heavily and slowly. It looked bad, but Danny’s supernatural healing would make sure there was no lasting damage.  
  
“You didn’t even wash this and you were going to sew it up? What, do you want some kind of crazy infection? Because that’s how you get a crazy infection.” Jazz grabbed a washcloth from the cabinet under the sink, dampened it with warm water, and began to gently cleanse Danny’s cut.  
  
“Ghosts don’t get infections, Jazz. Plus, I’ve been pretty much continuously bleeding since this happened, so it wouldn’t have made much of a difference,” Danny retorted. It was truly remarkable that this kid could continue to sass, even after losing over a pint of life (afterlife?)-sustaining bodily fluids. However, Jazz could see his green eyes starting to glaze over a little bit as exhaustion and pain set in. Better act fast so he can go back to being human and get some rest. Danny winced as Jazz made the first stitch.  
“Doesn’t matter, Danny. You’ve got to take better care of yourself. Ever since you got these powers you’ve neglected every aspect of your well-being in favor of fighting ghosts, and while I appreciate your heroic spirit,” Danny chuckled at the half-pun. Jazz rolled her eyes. “Unintentional, Danny.”  
  
“More like punintentional,” Danny giggled. Great; he was slipping.  
  
“Hold still!” Jazz whisper-screamed, “You don’t want to wake Mom and Dad up, do you?” Danny fell silent and looked at the floor, and Jazz swore she saw settling in his eyes storm clouds where before there was starry amusement. Jazz finished up the last few stitches and broke off the thread.  
  
“Okay, we’re all done here. Now spill, ghost boy.”  
  
Danny pouted. “Don’t call me that.”  
Looks like she hit a nerve. “Sorry, Danny,” she said, reaching out to touch Danny’s arm. He returned to staring at the floor, but made no effort to move away from Jazz’s hand. “Ready to talk about it?”  
  
“Not really, but I guess I don’t really have a choice, do I?”  
  
“You are correct; you do not.”  
  
“Fine,” Danny sighed. He took a moment to collect himself, and began: “So I was chasing the Box Ghost, right? I don’t even know why I bother with that guy at this point. He’s obviously not a threat and he’s annoying and he’s impossible to keep away at any rate so I might as well just let him have his cardboard kingdom or whate-”  
“Danny. Focus.”  
  
“Right. Yeah. Right.” Another deep breath. “Box Ghost. Tailing him. I’ve just about got him, but then I hear kind of a roaring noise behind me, like a motorcycle, so I assume it’s Johnny 13 or something, so I grab the thermos and try to get rid of the Box Ghost real quick so I don’t get double-teamed but the roaring noise keeps getting louder, like it’s charging up, and so I turn around to see what it is and-”  
  
“Not Mom. Tell me it’s not Mom.”  
  
“She shot me. With her new Fenton Harpoon Gun or whatever it is. She got me pretty bad, but I’ll live. Anyway, now you know, and I’m going to bed.”  
  
The door clicked, and suddenly Jazz was alone, in a puddle of ecto-blood, face-to-face with none other than Maddie Fenton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooooh cliffhanger on chapter 1! Y'all better hope I have the motivation to continue, or else you'll be eternally tormented by the dissatisfaction. You know what helps with that? Kudos and comments. Feed My Ego. Save a Fic. 
> 
> In all seriousness, though: Thank you so much for reading. It's been a while since I've written seriously, so I don't know how long it will be till the next chapter's done. I'm gonna aim for at least bimonthly, though. Hopefully as we get into the thick of things, I'll get faster, or at least good enough that it's worth the wait.


	2. Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe he could hide in the rubble until morning. Nobody would find him there. Not unless they were looking.

“Jasmine Fenton, what in the  _ world _ are you doing in here?” Maddie exclaimed. She lowered her blaster, which had previously been pointed in her daughter’s face. Jazz could only be thankful that her mother didn’t shoot first and ask questions later.

“I could ask you the same thing, Mom,” Jazz replied. She dusted herself off as she stood, recoiling when she felt something cold and slimy against her fingertips. She quickly wiped her hands on a nearby towel. “You think it’s okay to just barge in on your teenage daughter in the bathroom? Respecting boundaries is an important part of a healthy teen-parent relationship.”

“It’s not _barging_ , Jazz. The security system registered significant ghostly activity in this bathroom, and as a homeowner and a protector of the peace, it is well within my rights to investigate. Not to mention, sweetie, you’ve already gotten yourself involved with one of these _things_. Your credibility is out the window.” Maddie knelt down to examine the puddle of green goo, then looked up to peer at the matching stains on Jazz’s blouse and pants.

“I was not  _ involved _ with Johnny 13! His creepy girlfriend overshadowed me through her clothes. It’s different,” Jazz said indignantly. She would not stand for these attacks on her character. 

“Well, regardless of what happened, you did a good job beating that scum off our property. Looks like you got some good hits in, too,” Maddie said, touching the ectoplasm on the ground tentatively with a gloved hand, “That’s pretty impressive, especially unarmed.” She scooped a spoonful of glistening ectoplasm into a small vial.

“B-beating? Uh - right! I sure, uh, dealt with him!” Jazz tried for a triumphant smile, but only managed something akin to an uncomfortable grimace. Fortunately, Maddie didn’t seem to be paying attention; she was still taking samples from Danny’s blood puddle. Jazz hoped he was okay. Her little brother had been pretty out of it, and it was only a matter of time before blood loss and exhaustion would catch up with him. Could ghosts even get exhausted? Jazz made a mental note to ask Danny when he came back. 

She was pulled from her thoughts by her mother’s response. “That’s my girl!” Maddie exclaimed, impressed, “I’m so glad you’re finally taking an interest in the family business!”

“Yes, that is… definitely what I’m doing.”

“And I’m so proud!” Maddie screwed a metal lid onto the flask and sealed it with yellow biohazard tape before tucking it into her utility belt, and leaned over to peck Jazz on the forehead.

Jazz ducked out of her reach. “Mom, gross! You’re contaminated!”

“All right, I suppose. Well, I guess I’ll take this sample down to the lab! See you later, sweetie!” Maddie exited the bathroom, leaving Jazz alone once again with the mess on the floor. 

Jazz sighed. She was going to have to clean this up, wasn’t she? “Bye, mom,” she said.

\- - -

That was close. That was  _ close _ . There had been some close calls in the past, but never had there been a call this close. This call was extremely close and incredibly close -  no, that’s a book. Wait, actually, that doesn’t sound right. What was the title again? Danny didn’t know, and he frankly didn’t care. All he knew was that he needed to get  _ far away _ , fast - was it  _ Extremely Fast and Incredibly Close _ ? Whatever. Danny pushed the thought out of his mind as he scanned the city below for a place to land.

Thousands of lights flickered up at him, vaguely outlining the dark streets of Amity Park. Danny considered going to the Nasty Burger, but he would likely be recognized if he were to pass out and return to human form. Passing out. Right. He might pass out. He could feel the adrenaline high starting to ebb away, and with it faded his strength and his mental clarity. He glanced back down at the pinpricks of light, which were… moving and blurring together? Okay. No. Time to land now.

Danny quickly chose a destination, a deserted parking lot next to a bank, destroyed in a recent ghost attack. He touched down less gracefully than he would have preferred, but Danny felt too muzzy to really notice at this point. He stumbled just a few steps before his ankle folded beneath him and he hit the pavement, hard.  _ Useless legs _ , he thought,  _ you had one job. _ Mustering his remaining strength, Danny managed to float himself some six inches above the ground, and desperately willed himself towards the ruins of the bank. Maybe he could hide in the rubble until morning. Nobody would find him there. Not unless they were looking.

Slowly, painfully, Danny drifted himself over to the bank’s remaining wall.  _ Tired _ . The insistent pull of unconsciousness welcomed him, though, and he began to feel the world around him fading, until-

What an annoying noise. A pulsing, sort of, ringing. Extremely loud ringing. _Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close_. That's it. Wait. Ringing. His phone. Danny jolted awake, somehow managing to grab his phone from his ghost belt and flip it open.

“FENTON! Where  _ are _ you?” 

“Oh, uh,” Danny’s voice came out small.  _ Get it together, idiot. _ He cleared his throat, took a moment to remember what confidence sounded like, and tried again. “Hey, Sam.”

“Don’t ‘Hey Sam’ me, Danny. Where are you? You were supposed to come right back after you fixed yourself up!”

“Well, change of plans, I guess, okay? There was a bit of an incident, so I’m trying to lay low right now-” Danny wheezed. Too much breath at once. When did he turn human again? Whatever. Get it together.

“All right, I’ve got his location,” said a voice, further away.

“Thanks, Tuck. Sit tight, Danny. We’ll be right there. Don’t do anything stupid, okay?” Sam said, exasperated, though even half-conscious Danny could hear the edge of concern in her voice.

“Yeah, yeah,  _ mom _ ,” he mumbled. Darkness once again pressed at the edges of his vision.

Silence. “Don’t call me that.” Danny didn’t hear her hang up before he gave in to the siren call of sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, another chapter! I hope you're enjoying the seeds of exposition I have so painstakingly sowed. You can expect maybe another chapter or two of that before we get into the GOOD stuff. Still in the market for beta readers, so if you're interested drop me a line.
> 
> I have seven chapters outlined as of right now, and from here on out they should get significantly longer. Writing POV narrative is my weakness, especially with characters that I'm not super familiar with, so forgive me as I find my groove. All feedback continues to be appreciated, whether here, or on my tumblr, which is also @tsukihigui if you want to hear me ramble some more.


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